A Regurgitation of the Mind

The West Wing - A Secret Plan to Fight Inflation

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:46:15 +1100

The West Wing - A Secret Plan to Fight Inflation

I confess that in 2009 I have...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:49:43 +1100

(x) stayed single for the whole year
(x) made out in/on a car
( ) kissed inthe snow
( ) celebrated Halloween
( ) kissed in the rain
( ) had your heart broken
( ) broke someone else’s heart
( ) had a stalker
( ) went over the minutes on your cell phone
( ) had a good relationship with someone
(x) someone questioned your sexual orientation
( ) gotten pregnant
( ) had an abortion
( ) had a relationship with someone you’ll never forget
(x) done something you’ve regretted
( ) lost faith in love
( ) kissed under a mistletoe

OTHER
( ) painted a picture
(x) wrote a poem
(x) ran a mile
( ) shopped at Hollister or Abercrombie and Fitch
(x) posted a blog
(x) listened to music you couldn’t stand
(x) went to a sleepover
( ) went camping
( ) threw a surprise party
(x) laughed till you cried
( ) laughed till you peed in your pants
( ) visited a foreign country
( ) cut in a line of waiting people
(x) told someone you were busy when you weren’t
(x) partied to celebrate the new year
(x) cooked a disastrous meal
(x) lost something/someone important to you

In 2009 I…
(x) broke a promise
(x) lied
(x) went behind your parents’ back
( ) cried over a broken heart
(x) disappointed someone close
(x) hid a secret
(x) pretended to be happy
( ) slept under the stars
( ) kept your New Year’s resolution
(x) forgot your New Year’s resolution
(x) met someone who changed your life
(x) met one of your idols
(x) changed your outlook on life
(x) sat home all day doing nothing
(x) pretended to be sick
( ) left the country
( ) almost died
(x) given up something important to you
(x) lost something expensive
(x) learned something new about yourself
(x) tried something you normally wouldn’t try and liked it
(x) made a change in your life
(x) found out who your true friends were
(x) met great people
(x) stayed up til sunrise
(x) cried over the silliest thing
( ) was never home on weekends
( ) got into a car accident
(x) had friends who were drifting away from you
( ) had someone close to you die
(x) had a high cell phone bill
( ) spent most of your money on food
( ) had a fist fight
( ) went to the beach with your best friend
(x) saw a celebrity
(x) gotten sick
(x) liked more than 5 people at the same time
(x) became closer with a lot of people

Amazing Horse!

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:36:27 +1100

Amazing Horse!

Republicans Suck

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:09:48 +1100

Republicans Suck

"There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:31:30 +1100

“There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore. As he looked down the beach he noticed a boy picking the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. He got closer and he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?” The boy paused, looked up and replied, “Throwing starfish in the ocean. If I don’t throw them back in they will die. “The man then said, “Don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy listened politely. Then he bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves. He looked at the man and said, “It made a difference for that one.””

- UNKNOWN

Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson star in ‘A Small...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:35:34 +1100

Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson star in ‘A Small Rewrite’

Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. I love Hugh Laurie!

rileyssweettumblr: Things the Government Should Spend Money On That Would Actually Save Money In...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:31:34 +1100

rileyssweettumblr:

Things the Government Should Spend Money On That Would Actually Save Money In The Long Run

free condoms for teenagers (give every teenager 1000 free condoms, every year ….. no STDs, no teen pregnancies, you’d save trillions!)

public health care

guns for cash program (pay rednecks to hand in their guns)

free college education (undergraduate degrees are free, postgraduate degrees the government pays for 50%)

pay 17 - 25 year olds to do an exchange in a developing country for a year

btw I’m not a socialist, i just think spending money on these things would actually be good investments

agree, agree, agree, agree, agree!

Photo

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:24:49 +1100

I like Guy Sebastian’s new song. I didn’t even...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:01:03 +1100

I like Guy Sebastian’s new song. I didn’t even realise it was his until I went onto Take40.com.au today.

It's a good day

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:12:26 +1100

I haven’t had a day like this in a long time. For one, I only had one class today (Legal) so I got to sleep in nice and late. I watched a couple of episodes of The West Wing in bed, then got up, had a shower. My room was basically clean, so I didn’t have to spend half an hour in there to make it vacuum-able. I then decided to go for a nice long walk around the park near my house, so when I got home I was in a nice and upbeat mood. I got to school right on time (always tricky, too early and I stand around like a retard outside my classroom door, too late and I miss the beginning of my class), and was handed an essay I wrote last week. Straight As, the first time that’s happened in awhile. We then had another essay in class today, which I’m sure I not only aced, but also finished with ten minutes to spare (I NEVER do that). So then I drove into the city to go to the book store to try and find a Maths book I lost. I wasn’t feeling great about this, there’s less than a week left of our college year and I thought there would be no stock left. But no, in ten seconds I was out the door with a copy in my hand.

Now I’m sitting at home in my lounge room, laying on the couch talking to Jack Hoar on MSN, who I haven’t talked to in absolutely ages. I’ll hang here for another hour or so, then I’m picking Mum up from work, and we’re going to pick my car up from the service centre, where they should have fixed a couple of noise issues that have been driving me insane.

It’s a very good day :)

this morning i woke up feeling grumpy and with a headache

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:27:56 +1100

rileyssweettumblr:

i got to school 2 minutes before homeroom, enough time to get into a dumb fight with my friend John …. he made some gay joke which usually I wouldnt care about, normally I’d laugh, but i wasn’t in the mood so I got a bit agro at him and embarassed myself. I sulked off to my first class, Math, it felt like it was dragging on for hours. When the first period ended I went out to my car to get my biology text book but it wasn’t there, I’d left it at home …. so I just decided ‘fuck this’ and I got in my car and drove off. I made a new playlist for driving on the weekend so I put it on. I didn’t really have anywhere to go, at first I was going to just drive home and get my book for biology but I really felt like driving somewhere. So i texted my friend Gerry in Cambridge to see if he wanted to hang out. He is a senior but he has a really weird schedule, he seems to only go to school 3 days a week for just a few hours. I drove all the way to Cambridge and I never got a txt back from Gerry so I drove over to his work on the off-chance he was there. Gerry works at a mexican restaurant run by his gay granddad, they make really good fajitas. I looked through the window and I saw Gerry’s grandad and a few customers, but no Gerry. I was really in the mood for some mexican food then, but i didn’t want to sit in a restaurant on my own, so I went around the block to Chipotle and got a chicken burrito. I ate half of it in my car, it wasn’t very good. I txted Gerry again but he still wasn’t replying so I thought I’d go check out the mall. It was dead, there were a few moms pushing babies in strollers, and that’s about it. I was wearing my school uniform which felt strange, so I went into American Eagle to buy a shirt to change into. I didn’t really see anything in there I liked, and I was the only customer in there with two shopping clerks hovering over me the whole time so I left. I went into Barnes and Noble, picked up a copy of GQ magazine and sat in a cushy armchair and read it. Usually Barnes and Noble is really busy and all the seats are taken so it was pretty sweet to be able to sit down and read for a change. I sat and read for nearly an hour, then I walked over to the food court, I got a mango smoothie from Orange Julius. I tried calling Gerry but it went to his voicemail, so i left a rude message, then I drove home. It was nearly 2:00 when i got back to Annapolis, I was feeling a bit hyper so I decided to rake all the leaves in our front yard. Then i went inside and made a batch of grape jello, and some spaghetti bolognaise for dinner.

so that was my Holden Caulfied inspired day of running away from school. Now I’m going to make a new playlist for raking leaves, and go finish the back yard.

i hate the fact i live in a state where there’s nowhere to drive to. this would be so fun to do every once in awhile.

Social Morals on Social Legal Issues

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:16:13 +1100

Since I became obsessed with The West Wing, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of the “religious right”. I guess they intrigue me because there appear to be a vast number in comparison to Australia, where everyone laughs them off as being “nutters”. I’ve always had difficulty understanding how a human being can picket the funeral of someone who has been euthanised, solely for the fact that they don’t agree with the fact that that person recently ended their life. I have difficulty understanding how a human being can murder a homosexual couple for “being gay”. But more importantly, I have difficulty understanding how an elected official can stand from their parliament, or their Congress and denounce legislation that only affects a small minority of people.

I’ve mulled over this thought for some time, until tonight, when I found a conservative group on Facebook. I felt this was an opportunity to put my disbelief into words, and ask the masses why they feel they have the right to legislate on something that only affects the small minority, and in no way, shape or form affects them. An excerpt of my post is below:

I have lived a very liberal and religion-free childhood, and so have those around me. While I’m sure conservatives do exist in Australia, the left outrank the right by a scale of 5:1, at least in my state (and most of urban Australia). I have been brought up to accept each and every point of view, and to understand that “the right opinion” doesn’t exist, for every single person on this planet has different societal morals and expectations.

My question is, why don’t an alarming number of conservative Americans see personal belief this way also?

I’m well versed in the social platform of the Republican Party, as well as the other minor conservative parties in America. They’re basically a carbon copy of each other - and why not, let’s just list the three big ones, “pro-life, pro-traditional marriage and anti-prostitution”. Obviously, these correspond to three main social issues; Euthanasia, Prostitution and Gay Marriage. I pick these issues (and ignored Abortion) because they are the four that I least understand in terms of the conservative opinion. I welcome healthy debate on immigration, “The Drug War” and even abortion, despite the fact they are issues I have no doubt we collectively would disagree on.

I pick these issues because I fail to see why the right feel the need to focus their time and energy on them, when at the end of the day, these three areas aren’t going to effect them if they don’t want them to. I mean, assuming the three areas of law I have just mentioned have been legalised, imagine the following three scenarios. The who lives three blocks away from you hooks up with a prostitute. Your work colleagues’ husband’s mother wishes to end her life, after years battling a terminal illness. Your paper-boy marries his gay partner of seven years. How do these three scenarios effect you in any way? It is my opinion that they don’t in the slightest.

I’m aware the majority of you would be vehemently opposed to the aforementioned occurring. My guess as to why would be that it goes against your beliefs. Now, that’s a perfectly valid reason for topics like the economy, foreign aid, the role of the federal government etc. Why? Because these are issues that affect YOU. If the government decides to bail out another Fortune 500 company gone bust, it’s going to be your tax dollars playing the save game. You are entitled to make your decisions that AFFECT YOU based on your beliefs. I don’t think you get this privilege with the three areas of law I mentioned earlier, for the sole reason that they effect a minority. If you don’t want to get a gay marriage, you don’t have to. If you don’t want to have sexual intercourse with a prostitute, that’s ok too. If you don’t want to be euthanised, that’s your prerogative. But why do you feel that your opinion should affect what others who do not share the same opinion can do, legally? I feel that is criminal.

Picture this. Imagine the most conservative, right wing district in the United States right now. Unsurprisingly, its representative to Congress is most probably a Republican. Amidst the large number of conservatives in this district is a gay couple who wish to be married. Conveniently, around this time, a bill is introduced into Congress, proposing a federal blanket legalisation of gay marriage (excuse my limited knowledge of the Division of Powers between the Federal and State governments and assume what I have just said is constitutionally valid). This gay couple visit their Congressperson and urge them to vote with the Bill. Don’t you agree that even though this member of Congress might represent 10,000 constituents who oppose this legislation, they are obligated to vote in favour for the constituents who the bill WILL AFFECT.

I really hope I get some constructive posts back, so I can see what they believe. However, I’m more prepared for the inevitable “I’m praying for your poor, disturbed soul tonight.” But maybe they’ll surprise me and leave the religious aspect away from the debate. I hope so.

Drama Exam Aftermath

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:24:20 +1100

So, yesterday I had my first external exam for the year - practical Drama. External basically means our teacher doesn’t mark us, but we’re assessed by an external marker. I can’t remember the last time I was nervous about performing before my exam, but I honestly thought it was the worst feeling of my life. I was that close to forgetting my lines in one of my solo pieces, and then I swallowed some words in my other one, but apart from that I did ok - better than expected I guess. Then my group piece went fine, but as soon as the exam finished, our teacher rocked up to us and was like “I’ve seen you perform it better,” which worked wonders on my self esteem. I just am so happy it’s over - we just spend the next two weeks preparing for our written exam next month. I even get a sleep in on Friday (no Drama class for the rest of the week) which makes the weeks of rehearsing all worth it.

I have twenty-nine days until the rest of my exams start, and then they’re all over in four days. That’s both good and bad - I’m finished my year by November 13th, but it also means I’ve got four exams in four days - and I have two on the same day (yuck). Oh well, I’ll live. I hope.

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony: Graphical Score

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:45:23 +1100

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony: Graphical Score

rileyssweettumblr: i am rich i am so going to start doing this...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:30:28 +1100

rileyssweettumblr:

i am rich

i am so going to start doing this now!

Exams

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:17:33 +1100

I’m really not looking forward to exams this year. It’s not that I haven’t worked hard until now; I have… It’s just that it’s so hard to do well under our system. If I get more than one B in an exam (which is highly likely), I fall back from an EA (highest mark) to an HA (second highest mark). And if that happens, I get less TCE points. And if that happens, I get a lower TER score. And if that happens, I mightn’t get into a mainland university. And if that happens, I’m in stuck in Tasmania forever. And if that happens, I will be very sad.

First exam is next Wednesday - my practical Drama exam. Then I have about 3 weeks, and the rest of my exams are on. Ugh.

I wish my school had this as their voicemail…

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:47:00 +1000

I wish my school had this as their voicemail…

rileyssweettumblr: ‘we the conservatives need to be the example...

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:42:44 +1000

rileyssweettumblr:

‘we the conservatives need to be the example for respect and tolerance’

ok, maybe Perez Hilton was right for callign Miss California a dumb bitch

Right to Vote vs. Right to Bear Arms

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:48:33 +1000

Right to Vote vs. Right to Bear Arms

ollynewport: Woody style drinking and shower. Cute!

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:27:27 +1000

ollynewport:

Woody style drinking and shower. Cute!